GOVERNMENT REBATES
The Australian government offers a number of incentives to help you make the switch to solar power. These are the Solar Credit Scheme Rebate (Federal Government) and the Feed-in Tariff (State Government).
Whether you want to go solar at your home, school, business, community organisation or in a regional area, we will help you to maximise the Government incentives. The following is an explanation of how these incentives work.
SMALL-SCALE TECHNOLOGY CERTIFICATES
STCs or Small-scale Technology Certificates (previously known as RECs) are a measurement of renewable energy which can be traded for cash as a 'point of sale' discount. As part of the Solar Credit Scheme, the government awards each new solar PV system with a number of STCs. Solar Industry providers convert these STCs into an up-front rebate incorporated into the initial price of the system.
SOLAR CREDIT SCHEME
In August 2009, the government rolled out its Solar Credits system.
With every renewable energy installation, residential or commercial, the government provides a rebate which is called “Solar Credits”. The solar credits rebate uses a pre-determined formula to calculate the number of STCs to allocate to each installation dependent on its size.
Under the Solar Credits Scheme, current solar power system owners receive 5 times the number of STCs for the first 1.5 kW of system capacity.
As of June this year the rebate multiplier will have dropped to 3x. The multiplier applies to the first 1.5kW of your system size and the following table provides a guide to the approximate rebate available.
|
System
Size |
STCs
multiplied |
STCs
left over |
STCs
TOTAL |
Solar Credit Value
@ $40 per STC |
|
1.0kW = 20 STCs
|
(20 x 3) 60
|
0
|
60
|
$2,400
|
|
1.5kW = 31 STCs
|
(31 x 3) 93
|
0
|
93
|
$3,720
|
|
3.0kW = 62 STCs
|
(31 x 3) 93
|
+31
|
124
|
$4,960
|
|
5.0kW = 103 STCs
|
(31 x 3) 93
|
+72
|
165
|
$6,600
|
The Solar Credit Value is offered to the customer as a upfront or 'point of sale' discount by UNLTD Solar.
FEED-IN TARIFF
The Feed in Tariff (FiT) scheme is a State Government subsidy which is administered by Synergy and Horizon Power. During times when your system produces more power than you need, the excess power can be fed back into the grid.
A Solar PV system generates electricity during the day and the average electricity unit for each hour is called a kilowatt hour (kWh).
Please be advised that as of August 1st, 2011, the Office of Renewable Energy announced that: The Western Australian residential net feed-in tariff scheme has now reached its quota and has been suspended from 8.00am.
For more information visit The Office of Energy website.
